Menu

Tag Archives: election

In case you didn’t know this, Canada (the place I live) has recently had a federal election. Well, my class, (Huzzahnia) has recently had an election of our own.

Our six candidates

Our class now has a three member council. These people are there to make sure we help the environment, make class life better, and make sure we get P.E. outside. The following people were elected from a slate of six candidates: Jack, Max, and Meghan. However, the big question that was asked was if the election was free and fair. And I say YES it was!

Scrutineers swear or solemnly affirm to be fair

For starters, we had all of the required personnel to do the jobs: a returning officer, polling clerk, two scrutineers, and a chief electoral officer. They all had to swear an oath to not share the voting information and not take advantage of anyone’s disabilities.

Some problems did arise but were dealt with quickly by our Returning Officer.

Firstly, you are not allowed to have ANY signs or advertising in the polling station. Some people did try to sneak a few up and they were quickly taken down by our Returning Officer and had a thorough lecture about how that was wrong.

You cannot advertise in the polling station!

Someone even tried to put advertisement inside the secret voting box. Once again, it was taken out and nobody else tried to sneak any more signs in. But there was something else that somebody did. While waiting in line someone was trying to persuade people to vote for someone else by whispering to them. They were given a warning and then they stopped. Our Returning Officer did good, huh?

Secondly, everyone who was of age was able to vote no matter what. Our friend Matt, ended up breaking BOTH of his arms on the day of the election. So his “brother” Zack had to swear an oath that he would go in and mark down who Matt wanted to vote for and wouldn’t change it to what Zack wanted. Our Returning Officer also went to Matt to make sure everything was legal and all.

Secret ballot--no peeking!

Lastly, everyone’s vote was kept secret. You didn’t put your name on the ballot so nobody knew how you voted. This was a big one in the election. And there are only three people who know the exact total of votes. And they swore an oath not to tell.

Image Credits: All pictures taken by the wonderful and smart Queen of the Universe.

Have you ever held elections in your class or school? Did you run for office? If you did, what was it like? Are you looking forward to voting when you are an adult? Let us know!

Have you ever had a class election?

Our class has. Different people had different roles in our election. There were five people running for three seats. Another role was campaign manager who helped with promoting the person running. Different parties put up signs all around the classroom and one party even had a video to present.

When it came down to voting day more roles were added to keep the election fair. One of them was the Returning Officer whose job was to keep the voters’ privacy. For example if someone was looking at someone else’s ballot the Returning Officer would escort them out of the polling station.

Another important role was the Poll Clerk. His job was to make sure people only voted once. For example once the Returning officer handed the voter his ballot the Poll Clerk would make him sign on the voters list then he would cross out his name. When the voter returned to put his ballot in the box the Poll Clerk would sign his name on the voters list to show that the voter had submitted his vote.

Many people tried to disturb the privacy of the voters but it was dealt with.

Someone tried to put up political advertising at the polling station, but he was stopped by the Returning Officer because you can’t influence the voters.

Someone tried to spy into the voting booth, but the Returning Officer put a stop to that, too!

An unregistered voter (Mr. Green, our principal) tried to vote but was not allowed to. He was not between the age of 9 and 13 and was not a resident of Huzzahnia!

One voter tried to vote in another person’s place but the impostor was taken away!

One candidate threatened a voter to get his vote, but the Returning Officer called the police and he was taken away.

Friday, Nov. 14 was an important date for Huzzahnia. We held an election for our classes new council. During the “All Candidates Meeting”, candidates delivered their speeches persuading people for their vote. Here is an interview with one of the five candidates who’s nick-name is “Turtle Eating Crumpet”

R.O.: What was it like running for class council?

T.E.C.: I think it was a great experience, and it was fun to stand up and make people laugh in my speech. The monkey suit was the BEST!

R.O.: What will you try to change in Huzzahnia?

T.E.C.: My council and I are planning a party soon, but we’re not sure of what to do (yet).

R.O.: Do you believe that the thoughts of the residents here in Huzzahnia are important?

T.E.C.: Yes I do, and that’s why I ran! I believe that a council works by thoughts of other people, and that helps them to decide what they have to do in order to NOT BE BORED WITH THEIR JOB (Oh, so far I’m not…)!!

R.O.: Did you enjoy working with the other candidates during the election and afterwards?

T.E.C.: There were times where I felt like I couldn’t do anything more than what the other candidates had done, but I enjoyed it all the same. Although I did have a great time with my team and our election was fair. We were all nice to each other, and we weren’t allowed to do anything negative. I wouldn’t have anyways, though.

R.O.: Thank you for contributing to our needs and wants through out the election and for months to come.

During the election, I as the returning officer faced many challenges from unregistered voters to pencil bandits. Residents would come up one by one to get a ballot and proceed to the voting booth after signing the voters list. After all the votes were in, Hayden and Ms. Smith counted the votes and our new class council was announced!

It was an exciting day for one and all, especially the new class council! Thank you to all the candidates, and well done! Congratulations to our new council!

Is there an election where you live? Have you ever been envolved in an election? Please comment!

As Queen of the Universe and Supreme Ruler of Huzzahnia,

I declare that I will occasionally provide opportunities for direct democracy, through secret ballot or show of hands, and I may also grant some decision-making power to the directly elected class council. But it depends on how I am feeling.

This is my official Toadstich which grants me amazing powers, most notably, hp 500, which comes in very handy. My royal sword is a great comfort to me.

This is my Mythl: please note my Queenly Power. It helps me keep my head while all about me others are losing theirs.

These wonderful playing cards are the creation of Daniel and Kris. They developed the concept for these cards back in grade 3 and are reviving it now. I am thrilled, and look forward to reading their blog post on the topic soon.

…you HAVE TO keep it!

Our Class Council elections are over, and soon we will have a guest post or two about the process. Students made campaign promises–some serious, some not. One student who was elected had promised that if she was chosen, she would run around the school yelling…